Cortina d'Ampezzo

One week - Ski Week! We thought we should make the most of it and arranged quite a while ago to meet up with our Italian friends, Silvia and Krantz.  They have a place in Cortina in the Italian Dolomites which is about half way between us in Munich and them in Bologna. Marco and his daughter Giulia as well as Silvia's niece Letizia joined us from Bologna.

We left Munich late Saturday morning for what should have been a 4 hour trip. A lot of other people apparently had the same idea. Despite having no speed limits, we spent an awful lot of time doing 0 km/hour on the German autobahns. But we didn't care, because we were on holidays! We eventually arrived in time for dinner, as always great Italian food, thanks Silvia!

On Sunday we hired snow shoes and walked for a couple hours up to a hut above Ra Stua where we took our lunch.  It was a long and tiring but well worth it.  The snow was soft and beautiful and you couldn't help but be impressed by it.

On Monday we went skiing.  Well, Malcolm went skiing and Ingrid tried but has decided down hill is not for her!  Malcolm got to ski all of the Faloria runs with Krantz and Marco.  It was something of a reunion, as they had first skied together here 27 years ago.  Having not skied for 17 years, Malcolm was glad to realise that he was no better nor worse, just a whole lot less elastic.  The Dolomites are spectacular and Ingrid did not mind sitting out as there was a nice place in the sun to sit on deckchairs and watch.  A very pretty place.

In the evening we went to dinner above Cortina at the delightful Malga Federa mountain hut, originally built in the 1700's. Getting there was part of the fun in an articulated, fully tracked, Hagglunds ex-military vehicle - 3 litre turbo diesel, top speed 55 km/hr, consumes 167 litres of fuel per 100 km and is fully amphibious.  

Dinner consisted of  local specialties and was fantastic (no surprise there) and afterwards we raced down the 6km on sleds. After quite a few red wines and limoncello, Ingrid had become more adventurous and belted Malcolm on the back of the head whenever he attempted to put his feet down to brake.  The only light we had was a hand held minilite torch to guide us down the windy path.  With over a metre of snow around, when you had an "off" it was not disastrous. If Ingrid ever tries to ski again maybe she should drink vino rosso first...

The Tuesday was a lazy day as most people had to go back to Bologna to work which left just Krantz with us.  We went for a nice long icy walk and then went back through the main part of town.

Wednesday was going to be probably the last sunny day so we decided this was the day to go cross country skiing. We hired some skis and off we went.  We skied the 15 km from Passo Cimabanche to the Lago di Dobbiaco, stopping for lunch on the way. The beer at the end was well worth it and well deserved. 

Thursday Ingrid had school work to do and Malcolm and Krantz went into town as the weather was not perfect for skiing.

Friday we decided to get up super early and head to Venice for the day (around 2 hours south).  We got into Venice for breakfast.  Unfortunately it was raining but we kept hoping it would stop and we were sure at times that it was getting lighter - it was not.  If anything it got heavier. A lot of the streets were completely flooded! We walked around as much as we could, a super high tide was coming in so temporary walkways were being put in to walk about 60 cm above the paths.  It was quite unnerving watching water come up through drains. We went to lunch hoping it would stop raining but no it only got heavier so we decided to leave knowing we must go back in finer weather.  

That night Sylvia came back up to join us and we went to a local pizzeria and had pizza with local Italian cheeses and meats on it- YUM!!  We have, surprisingly, enjoyed the German food a lot but the Italian food .........  even the basics have so much flavour compared to anywhere else (I know people will say "What about France?" but that is not until July).

Saturday we went for a walk and did a little window shopping in Cortina (way too expensive to buy anything there). We did buy a bottle of Prosecco and filled the shopping bag with snow to chill it - very effective.  That night Silvia cooked us a lovely dinner.  Sunday we got up and had a long breakfast then headed north.  When we got to Innsbruck we took a different route through the mountains to get home and thus saw some beautiful and different scenery.

For more photos click here.

Schliersee - Malcolm's weekend

We had a particularly pleasant 7 kilometre walk the around the frozen Schliersee lake.  The children played in the snow.

Mumbai

Last weekend Malcolm and I had two very different weekends.  Whereas he got to go to the mountains and walk in the snow, I got to go to a MYP workshop for school in Mumbai.  The workshop was for Friday - Sunday.  I was looking forward to the workshop, being able to once again wear a t-shirt during the day and also to staying in a hotel with ENGLISH TV!!!!!!!!

I stayed at the Novotel on the beach in Juhu.  The school where the workshop was held was a world school that had security guards everywhere.  The workshop was excellent and very worthwhile even if I did only get a couple of hours sleep the first night.  On the Saturday night I took a private car and went for a brief tour of South Mumbai (the main part of the city).  We went to the laundry in the slum area.  It was amazing to see how they could clean so well in these conditions.  The water looks dirty but they are using a particular type of black soap, the laundry was very clean.  

We then went inside a temple, inside a wedding venue that would host 3000 people and into the local markets.  It was great to drive around but sad when beggars knocked on your window. 

During our lunch break on Sunday we went for a walk around near the school.  One of the guys had lived in India for 20 years so he led us through one of the small slum communities.  It was fascinating to see.  There was a tea house, butcher, tv repair shop and more.  Everyone was friendly.  We spoke to some boys who were off to play cricket and invited us to join them but we had to get back to school.

After the final day I went back to the hotel and took a walk along the beach.  The beach was packed but you rarely saw someone swimming in it.  Then dinner at the hotel with other teachers that I had met, before flying home.  To see more pictures click here.

99 Luftballons

On the last day of January we decided to take a trip to Tegernsee.  After working all day Saturday a full day out was needed.  It took us about an hour and a half to get to Bad Weissee which was holding a Hot Air Balloon festival.  Unfortunately due to the wind they were unable to go up but it was still a beautiful town which we got to walk around.  

 

I tried to count the balloons to see if there were 99, but lost count when they started appearing everywhere!  They had a small winter market that thankfully sold gluewein and raclette so we were happy.  It was a great day just to wander through the town and find out about places to go near by for next time so we can go cross country skiing.

If you want to see more photos just click here.